Fare thee Well O-Five

January 2, 2006

Happy New Year to everyone! The last couple weeks have been incredible and the next couple are shaping up to be as immensely great. Let’s start with the Eve of New Year’s Eve …

On Friday, December 30th, I had my first annual End of the World Party (Just in Case). I stole the name from the Medeski, Martin & Wood album title, but it’s a great concept. Had the world ended the next day, we all would’ve been glad we had the party. But the real reason to celebrate was Vaughn Walters’ last night in the mountains of WV.

You see Vaughn, or Ol’VW as he’s known musically, is taking his first excursion to Austin, TX with his friend Seth and a loaded down Subaru Outback that is guaranteed, by a certified mechanic, to leave them “stranded beside the road.”

Camellia (Delky) came up from Radford to jam once more with her former A Fine Line band mate. Right about 11 o’clock the instruments were tuned up; Delky on fiddle, Vaughn on the banjer, Doc Sick on guitar and the Tonsta on mandolin. We tore through “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “Woke Up This Mornin’ Feelin’ Bad,” “I’ll Fly Away,” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” The magic that fills the air when you get these kind of people together is so thick, you can seriously feel it inside and out (or at least I could). I’m proud to say that I held an instrument in the same room with these people. The crazy part is that I played the thing!

So the next morning, er, afternoon, I got to share a scrumptious pancake brunch with four of my best friends, (Tony, Lori, Camellia and Vaughn) my sister Amy and my niece Cora. She’s nine months old now, but was totally digging the musician talk (See my pictures).
Everyone, including my sister and her yung’uns, took off by about 2 p.m. The house became incredibly quiet very quickly. Camellia had a gig with La Bianca at the new fish & taco place in Blacksburg, and I had to prepare to review a show that evening . . .

Every New Year’s Eve (since 2002 at least) Princeton, WV celebrates the life and music of Hank Williams Sr., who expired somewhere between Alabama and Oak Hill, WV on New Year’s Eve, 1952, in the back of his powder blue Cadillac on his way to a New Year’s Day gig in Ohio.

Sister’s Coffee House in Princeton plays host to a NYE celebration every year where they serve jambalaya and everyone listens to John Lilly and his band of Hank lovers pay tribute to the Drifting Cowboy himself. Lilly just won a “Ghost Writers in the Sky” contest for best song in the style of Hank Williams, the grand prize being a Washburn guitar with his name in the inlays of the fret-board. He’s joined by Rob McNurlin, a stellar KY recording artist who’s 2000 record, “Cowboy Boot Heel,” was produced by John Carter Cash (Johnny and June’s son). Donny “Dobro” Scott sat in on Dobro, Ritchie Collins supplemented electric guitar fills and solos, and Jeff “Doc” Greenberg on piano. Last year the “Doc” just showed up and asked if he could sit in on piano. Since Ritchie had never played with Rob before, and Rob had never played with Donny, they decided it couldn’t hurt to add someone that none of them had ever played with. As it turned out the guy was an outstanding ivory tickler and he came back again this year (making it the second time he played with John and the boys, ever). Group situations like this make me marvel at the musical language. I remember my mother asking me last year “If they’ve never played together, how do they know the songs?” That’s one of the best parts about country music; even if you’ve never heard the song, you know the song.

On New Year’s Day my folks and I went to see a couple songwriters play at Tamarack, a national showcase of regional hand crafts, fine art and cuisine. Clinton Collins (not the same one I went to High School with) is a songwriter from Princeton that I caught during this past summer’s NewSong Festival in Shepardstown, WV. He was picked as a finalist for his song “Watching Home & Garden,” a great little number about how he never sees a successful 45 yard field-goal attempt then turns to his wife and says “Honey, I bet you could that!”

Then Doug & Shelley Harper, a husband-wife duo, performed some of Doug’s tunes. Doug & Shelly have relentlessly sent stuff to Mountain Stage but are yet to be booked. One note said “Still waiting and hoping in Beckley.” They want to do Mountain Stage badly. Personally, I wouldn’t book them, and I’ll tell you why …

Firstly, I don’t write songs. I admire anyone who does. Some people don’t like to hear or read criticism by someone who has never done what those being criticized have set out to do. Writing good songs is extremely difficult. I realized this a long time ago and I think some songwriters need to come to this realization soon.

Doug forgot his own chords to his own songs and Shelly didn’t seem at all glad to be there. She never spoke and never smiled. She just sat, passively tapping her egg-shaker against her leg while adding harmony to her husband’s voice. If you expect to be able to sit quaintly on a stool while you strum guitar to egg-shaker accompaniment, and expect the masses to get lost in your lyrics of angst, clever antidotes and word-play, then you’ve got another thing coming.

If you’ve got a shaker egg in your hand, I think you should stand up and let other things shake too. I’m looking to be entertained, especially on New Year’s Day.

Now, some clues on how you can spot a modern-country rock cover band from a mile away. Firstly, if you see a straw cowboy hat in Tamarack, that guy is probably in a band. If you should spot a mullet with a leather vest and Texan-necktie, he’s likely in the band as well. And lastly, if, in the same place, you see a tall, thin, clean-cut guy in a black bowling shirt that has orange flames rising up from the bottom, that dude plays bass. It can safely be assumed that these guys will finish their set with a barn-burner like “Sweet Home Alabama,” after touching on such mod-country staples as “Put Some Drive In Your Country,” and “Play Somethin’ Country.” Oh, and by the way, the band’s name is “Back Country.”

Currently watching: Dig!

www.johnlillymusic.com
www.robmcnurlin.com
www.tamarackwv.com
www.myspace.com/olvw
www.myspace.com/camelliadelk
http://www.hybridfolk.com/home.html
http://clintoncollins.com
La Bianca interview